I just bought a HP C8000 off of ebay (for dirt cheap, and more are still listed), and thus begins my journey into the mysterious world of PA-RISC. Came with a PA-8800 1GHz, ATI FireGL X1 (256MB), and 73+146GB Ultra320 disks.

I had no idea these things are as large as they are, and they're shockingly silent given the fact that mine is pulling over 260W out of my wall just idling at login. Unfortunately the case is locked and I wasn't given the key, so I'll have to find some other way to open it up.

Last edited by gkl on Sun Mar 13, 2011 12:07 pm, edited 3 times in total.

If that's one of those round keys with the (parallel) cuts down the outer side of the barrel...

I'm pretty sure you can defeat those by using a BIC pen with the cap removed from the end (or anything that fits snugly into the lock- so there's a fair amount of friction), by just jamming it in there and turning it in the direction the lock opens, then slowly pulling it out (while continuing to turn it).

I've defeated a few locks like that on other various keyless equipment.

If it's a bog standard pin/tumbler lock... You can defeat those easily enough with a bent jumbo safety pin (or anything else that retains it's shape under pressure) and a screwdriver... Google lock picking, it's easier then you might think. Paperclips might work, but they tend to bend before you can apply enough leverage to pop up the rear pins.

Dennis Nedry wrote:If that's one of those round keys with the (parallel) cuts down the outer side of the barrel...

I'm pretty sure you can defeat those by using a BIC pen with the cap removed from the end (or anything that fits snugly into the lock- so there's a fair amount of friction), by just jamming it in there and turning it in the direction the lock opens, then slowly pulling it out (while continuing to turn it).

I've defeated a few locks like that on other various keyless equipment.

If it's a bog standard pin/tumbler lock... You can defeat those easily enough with a bent jumbo safety pin (or anything else that retains it's shape under pressure) and a screwdriver... Google lock picking, it's easier then you might think. Paperclips might work, but they tend to bend before you can apply enough leverage to pop up the rear pins.

Dennis Nedry wrote:I've defeated a few locks like that on other various keyless equipment.

I knew this worked for bike locks, but I wasn't sure about these kinds. From the looks of it, the case lock is only a 4-pin (whereas things like soda machines have 8 pins), so maybe it'll be easy to break into. Worst case, I ask HP if they can send me a replacement. I suspect they issued the same key for all of their C8000s.

Of more concern now is that apparently HP patches are now for support contract-holders only, and a lot of their free software offerings (e.g., Firefox 3.5) require system patches above what came on the 11i base install set. I have access to OpenVMS and Tru64 support, but I suspect I may be SOL and stuck with the limited 11i cds and upgrades I have.

I knew this worked for bike locks, but I wasn't sure about these kinds. From the looks of it, the case lock is only a 4-pin (whereas things like soda machines have 8 pins), so maybe it'll be easy to break into. Worst case, I ask HP if they can send me a replacement. I suspect they issued the same key for all of their C8000s.

Likely. I'm not aware of any manufacture that makes per-machine key sets. I think that would cost them too much to make each lock unique for every computer shipped.

Either way, it should still work. I had to deal with one of those (4-pins, super-cheap lock) on a keyless rack about a week ago. It took me about 2 minutes to pull apart a BIC pen and widen the end with a pair of side cutters. Jam the end of the pen into the lock, slowly pivot it around the tumbler axis while turning it in the direction that it opens... 15 seconds later, the rack latch merrily popped up and the rack was open. Wasn't really part of my job at the time, but I had to say something when I saw them heading off to find a drill, a hacksaw, and a crowbar (they'd locked themselves out of the cabinet and had to get to the tape library to install fresh media).

Dennis Nedry wrote:Either way, it should still work. I had to deal with one of those (4-pins, super-cheap lock) on a keyless rack about a week ago. It took me about 2 minutes to pull apart a BIC pen and widen the end with a pair of side cutters. Jam the end of the pen into the lock, slowly pivot it around the tumbler axis while turning it in the direction that it opens... 15 seconds later, the rack latch merrily popped up and the rack was open.

Wow, this actually worked exactly as quickly as you had said. Took me longer to find a pen than it did to actually get the lock open. That's one problem down; thanks for the tip!

I have a J6750, and the new HP-UX patching policy is a pain (it's as bad as the new Oracle policy for Solaris...) - just to let you know, Debian runs a dream on PA-RISC hardware thanks to the folks at ESIEE, if you ever need a backup OS.

gkl wrote:I just bought a HP C8000 off of ebay (for dirt cheap, and more are still listed), and thus begins my journey into the mysterious world of PA-RISC. Came with a PA-8800 1GHz, ATI FireGL X1 (256MB), and 73+146GB Ultra320 disks.

Are you sure it's an X1? C8000s 'officially' don't support those (or they're missing from the docs), it's usually either T2 or X3. Also, the X1 only had 128MB, afaik.

Alver wrote:Are you sure it's an X1? C8000s 'officially' don't support those (or they're missing from the docs), it's usually either T2 or X3. Also, the X1 only had 128MB, afaik.

It may be an X3 then. I kept going back and forth because some docs refer to the "high end" graphics option as X1 and other docs say X3. If the X1 is limited to 128MB though, I've definitely got the X3.

I'll have to give it a try. So far I've been able to find all the software I need precompiled, although one visualization package I use for work (VMD) crashes out if I try to run it with OpenGL support. Compiling it from source did not look fun, but I believe there is a pkgsrc for it.

I had a 256MB FireGL X1-256 in one of my PCs for the better part of the last decade, so I'm quite sure that ATI made FireGL X1 cards with 256MB. (They may also have been available with 128MB, too, but that's another matter. And what was supported in the C8000 is yet another question!)

Probably at the time of introduction, the high end was the X1 and then when ATI released the X3 it superseded the X1 as the high end option. The fine print in those docs show copyrights of 2004 and 2007.

jpanchal wrote:I have a J6750, and the new HP-UX patching policy is a pain (it's as bad as the new Oracle policy for Solaris...) - just to let you know, Debian runs a dream on PA-RISC hardware thanks to the folks at ESIEE, if you ever need a backup OS.

jpanchal wrote:I have a J6750, and the new HP-UX patching policy is a pain (it's as bad as the new Oracle policy for Solaris...) - just to let you know, Debian runs a dream on PA-RISC hardware thanks to the folks at ESIEE, if you ever need a backup OS.

It does for now (5.0) but for 6.0 hppa is dropped

Just FYI: Debian 6.0 (aka Squeeze) was released a week ago, on Feb. 6, 2011. But Debian 5.0 (aka Lenny) is still available.